Dominican Monastery, Dubrovnik

Dominican Monastery, Dubrovnik tickets: which one to buy

The Dominican monastery occupies the north-eastern corner of Dubrovnik's walled old town, just inside the Ploce gate, and it is ticketed, cheaply, with the ticket covering the cloister and the museum. The church itself can often be entered for free. This is one of the most rewarding interiors in the city and one of the least crowded, because the tour groups enter through the Pile gate at the other end of the main street and many never get this far.

Walking tours of the old town mention it and sometimes stop in the cloister. The city card covers several museums and the walls; check whether the monastery is included in the current version before buying. If you plan to walk the walls, the Ploce entrance is right beside the monastery and is usually less busy than the one at Pile, so the two fit together well in a single early morning. Tickets are sold at a desk inside the cloister entrance rather than at the church door.

Visiting Dominican Monastery, Dubrovnik: what to see

The Dominicans were building here from the thirteenth century and the complex, finished largely in the fourteenth and fifteenth, was designed as part of the city's defences, with the monastery walls joining the town walls at the most exposed corner. The church is a wide, plain Gothic hall. The cloister is the loveliest space in Dubrovnik: Gothic arcades with Renaissance tracery by local masons, around a garden of orange trees and palms with a well at the centre.

The museum, in rooms off the cloister, holds the best collection of painting in the city, including a Mary Magdalene with saints attributed to Titian, a series of altarpieces by Nikola Bozidarevic and other members of the Dubrovnik school of the late fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries, gold and silver reliquaries, and early printed books from the monastery library. A painting by Vlaho Bukovac, the city's great modern painter, hangs in the church. A carved stone staircase with a Gothic balustrade climbs from the street to the church door and is the best-known view of the building.

Dominican Monastery, Dubrovnik opening hours and the best time to go

Open through the day in summer with shorter hours in winter. Early morning is best, before the cruise passengers arrive in the old town, and the cloister is shaded and cool even in August. The museum rooms are small and fill quickly when a group does come. Dubrovnik is extremely busy from June to September; May, early June and October are far more comfortable, and the winter months are quiet with most attractions still open.

The feast of Saint Blaise in early February fills the city with processions. Summer festival performances use several courtyards in the old town. Allow forty-five minutes for the cloister and museum, and pair the visit with the walls from the Ploce gate or a walk out to the old harbour, a minute away. The old harbour beyond the Ploce gate is the departure point for boats to the island of Lokrum.